Startopia 1.01.1

[My Little Planet]

A Startopia update! This time a brand new Beta, and not to be confused with the minor splash screen update I posted earlier. It's kind of a big deal, although not a terribly exciting update, I'm afraid; consider it a scene setter, though, that will hopefully pave the way for some slightly more interesting updates going forwards.

If you want to check it out, you'll need to opt into Betas via Startopia's Properties panel here on Steam, and if anyone does fancy trying it, then it would be hugely appreciated, although obviously, you do so at your own risk! It *should* be compatible with existing save games, but please back up any game profiles and save games that are important to you, as there's always a risk with early release software like this that could cause problems.

Because this is a new build of old code, we're mainly looking for inconsistencies between this and the original 1.01 version of the game everyone's played up until now. Please be on the lookout for missing features, exciting new crashes, or anything that doesn't seem quite right.

So to reiterate, we're currently looking for anything *new* and strange, not old and strange :-)

Finally, if you experience any issues, please let me know in this thread, and if you face any significant issues with this, then simply opt-out of the Beta, which will return you to the original version of the game.

Finally finally, please go easy on me; This is a part-time hobby for me and very much my passion project, but I don't have a lot of time to work on it. If this re-build of the code works, though, then I'm certainly planning to do more in the upcoming months.

[everSamikay]

Man, imagine seeing an update to your favorite game after what feels like 20 years. This and Giants: Citizen Kabuto cream of the 2000's crops. Anyhoo, played for about 30 minutes and had no issues other than trying to set resolution to 1440p triggers a bunch of errors and crashes the game, but that's pretty minor.

[Lord CraK]

wow, thanks for this new project!

[lyravega]

Huh, an update to one of my favourite games after all this time.

I think after Bullfrog's demise, Murky Foot was the one that grasped what made Dungeon Keeper special.

What's the deal with the Spacebase: Startopia though?

[zombicide]

This is amazing. Startopia is my equivalent of a comfort blanket, I've played it over and over for all these years. Thank you so much for making the game, and thank you for coming back to it!

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by lyravega:

What's the deal with the Spacebase: Startopia though?

Kalypso doing their usual, borrowing an idea from an old defunct game and making a new game "inspired" by the original while using none of the copyright material. They know how to avoid copyright infringement while copying the ideas but not the details.

They did the same thing with "Dungeons" it's their inspired by Dungeon Keeper series.

In this case they seem to have either gotten permission from Square-Enix to use the trademarked word Startopia, or they filed while the trademark was lapsed, since trademarks lapse if they are not used. So they have their own similar name "Spacebase Startopia" which no one is challenging for trademark while they are making a game that just happens to be in the same genre but will not be using any of the original IP or copyright material from Startopia.

It's just a starbase management sim from another company.

The other word "spacebase" is too generic to trademark, but is borrowed from another starbase management game (spacebase DF9)

So, kalypso now have trademark over the phrase "Spacebase Startopia" while "Startopia" by itself is reverted to My Little Planet (after Square-Enix let it go)

[Tinkytinkytink]

Don't tell me what to do. You go easy on yourself !

I'll give it a full playthrough come weekend. Let's hope everything works fine and i'll not have to return here to rant and rage about the horrors i have experienced :P

Thank you for caring

[londonghostdog]

Thank you for the update. As others have said this is very much a beloved game and I find it very relaxing and comforting to play so am delighted it is being looked after again.

I tried out the beta on one of the in-built missions. The only problem I could see was that quite often (but not always) the animation of the scuzzers and aliens would become very jumpy (i.e. not smooth, like very bad stop animation). This was particularly noticeable when you had lots of scuzzers and/or aliens in the game. I uninstalled the beta and it went back to normal.

[Tinkytinkytink]

Played the first 2 missions so far without any problems.

The only things i noticed were:

General: A frame flickering every couple of minutes and probably only for one frame. Could be my TV and is most likely on my end. (1768x992 30Hz)

Groulien Workers Party:
I got multiple messages in quick succession halfway through about recreation and love which is not part of the mission.

That's it :) Will edit when i find anything more.

[Korrd]

This is one of the games I keep replaying every few years. It's truly a gem. I'm still not sure how I feel about the not a remake, but this Startopia will always have my affection. Thanks so much for giving it a little love after all this time.

[My Little Planet]

Thanks for your kind words everyone :-)

[My Little Planet]

Originally posted by TinkyTink:

Played the first 2 missions so far without any problems.

The only things i noticed were:

General: A frame flickering every couple of minutes and probably only for one frame. Could be my TV and is most likely on my end. (1768x992 30Hz)

Groulien Workers Party:
I got multiple messages in quick succession halfway through about recreation and love which is not part of the mission.

That's it :) Will edit when i find anything more.

Thanks Tinky Think, really appreciate you checking it out for me!

Keep an eye on the flickering, that's a new one on me.

The Groulien Workers Party issue is interesting. Is it reproducible?

[Uueerdo]

It takes a lot to make my jaw drop. Good thing I don't need it to type because I need to pick it up off the floor!

I think we found the 2021 Labor of Love award winner!

[Kroezensjtern]

Are you sure of the versioning your want to use? There is a semi-official patch 1.02.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Kroezensjtern:

Are you sure of the versioning your want to use? There is a semi-official patch 1.02.

The one from 2004 made by someone else that carries this warning:

THIS VERSION HAS HAD VERY LITTLE TESTING. Make sure you keep your previous version of StarTopia.exe so that you can swap back if you find any problems.

And clearly notes that it isn't intended to be anything other than a shadowbuffer test?

It's primary addition is shadowbuffers (aka "real shadows"). This is intended primarily as a technology demonstrator, not really as something you'd play the game with

Pretty sure it's safe to ignore that.

[Tinkytinkytink]

@My Little Planet

The Groulien Workers notification is reproducable. It always happens the moment you build your first Lavatron and your first workers arrive.

https://imgur.com/a/4u22w24

Screenshot to clarify. It's nothing major..just the normal notifications, but they shouldn't appear in that mission and never did before :)

I'm on Karmarama Drama this evening and while the flicker is still constant I can't test if its on my end or not as I don't have a monitor at hand to switch and see :)
I just lean out of the window and say its a TV problem. The same reason why i need to switch my desktop to 640x480 everytime i reinstall,adjust ingame options and then switch my desktop back to native.

I restarted and closed the game a lot the last days and: Startopia isn't running anymore ;) So that's good news and a big thank you for fixing this minor yet annoying steam problem.